L’Illusioniste (The Illusionist), 2010
Have you ever, upon see a preview for a film, instantly come to the conclusion that “If I had my druthers, I'd be seeing this film on opening night”? After I had seen the preview for The Illusionist, I knew it was a movie that I would be seeing as soon as it played in my city.
Set in post-war Europe, The Illusionist is a story of an aging stage magician who travels from theater to theater to perform in front of dwindling audience numbers. After being cut from the performance lineup his regular theater in favor of rock bands, he travels to rural Scotland. While visiting a village, he meets a Gaelic-speaking girl named Alice who is convinced that he is truly capable of performing magic. Together the pair then travels to Edinburgh, where they meet a colorful cast of fellow performers – a ventriloquist, a clown, and an acrobat trio – and make a life together in the city. As they spend time living in the city, their relationship between one another evolves as Alice seems to find her place in the world, while the illusionist realizes that his place, as a performing stage magician, is becoming increasingly obsolete. The movie is much a story of two individuals spending a short time together as it is a testament to the changing place of entertainers in the modern day and age.
Chomet’s distinct character designs are aptly showcased in this film. The character’s exaggerated body frames, expressive faces, and muted colors lends to this movie’s charm and are also signature of 2003’s Triplets of Bellville. The Celtic-inspired, piano driven score also assists in capturing both charm and an overlying sense of melancholy. This film has very little dialogue between the characters. There are many scenes that find both humor and poignancy through the lack of linguistic understanding between the main characters. The rich backgrounds and setting the film provides also transport the viewer to a time when rural electricity was still a rarity, vaudeville performers still haunted city stages, and rock music was in its infancy.
There are a variety of odes to the late Tati throughout the film - the most apparent occurring when the main character steps into a movie theatre playing Mon Oncle- but there is much about The Illusionist that is distinctly Chomet. I'd recommend this melancholic and beautiful film to animation fans and Tati fans alike!
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